This past Wednesday, for the second year running, the Prince of Arcade came to town—giving MIGS attendees and game enthusiasts alike the chance to relax with their peer groups and play some amazing indie games. In no particular order, the following are things that made the evening rather spiffy:
The Games
La raison d’être. What would a video game party be without sweet sweet games? (Check out videos and trailers here)
Hohokum by Honeyslug and Richard Hogg
Hokra by Ramiro Corbetta
Johann Sebastian Joust: JOUST OF CANADA Edition by die gute Fabrik
Crafted by hardware hackers The Buttonmashers, our new indie arcade cab made its first public appearance featuring some amazing local games (and a special guest from out of town!). (More info here.)
The organisers at MIGS, for supporting the cause and getting the word out.
Battle Lava, for throwing down some incredible chiptunes.
Rich Lemarchand and Phil Fish for a seductively danceable DJ set.
And the kind folks at Eastern Bloc, for patience and professionalism in helping set up the event.
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And because the magical memories are so dear, the cameras were rolling and caught some magnificent moments of the event itself (Let us know if you’ve got your own!):
The Dirty Rectangles documented their journey here.
Nick Rudzicz, co-organiser, has a Picasa set of the preparations.
Photographer Antonella Fratino captured some amazing shots here.
Sagar Patel also caught a bunch and popped them up on Picasa.
James Everett has a great set of shots from both MIGS and the Prince of Arcade here.
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Encore une fois, merci à tous. It was époustouflant.
Let’s do this again sometime.
Long Live the Prince.
—- PS: And finally, a note to all our local MRGS friends—don’t forget that there’s a meetup Wednesday night, the 9th! We will meet each other there, and drink deeply from tall draughts of keen memories.
Have you heard? The Prince of Arcade is two days hence, and it’s looking pretty magical. We’re storming an art gallery and projecting some of the latest in beautiful arcade-style indie games on the walls, toasting our health, and incredibleing the night away. And there’s a superlative Facebook event, for all your legally-binding informational needs!
Oh, and then there’s this: we’re unveiling the Arcade Royale.
We’ve been working hard with local hardware hackers the Buttonmashers and several local developers over the past few weeks, and good heavens are we excited about this thing. Five absolutely delicious multiplayer arcade games from Montreal developers (and one special visitor from out of town!) are loaded up and ready to rock you like a tropical depression at the Prince of Arcade. It’s overwhelming!
We’ve had the pleasure of playtesting these games in the Buttonmashers dojo, and the results are astounding. We’ll be talking more about each game in the weeks to come, but for now head over to the Buttonmashers website for some sweet, arcadey video action.
Wait, you want more? Okay. Okay, fine. But don’t say we didn’t warn you.
SURPRISE GUESTS:
B-Cycle, by Collectif IN-Média, is an thrilling bicycle journey… THROUGH THE HUMAN BODY.
We’re pumped (oh ho ho ho.)
Oh, and hey, our co-organisers the Dirty Rectangles heard you like arcades, so they’re packing a minivan full of goodness, hitting up the T-Can, and unveiling their own classy cocktail cabinet: the Ottatron! Now you can play some arcades while your friends play arcades at the Prince of Arcade!
And if that weren’t amazing enough, our friends at die gute Fabrik have hacked their fabulous Johann Sebastian Joust to bring us a brand new creature: Joust of Canada, a Boards of Canada physical bonanzarama. Will there be swords? There may be swords.
Throw in some surprise special guests, and there is no excuse to miss this! Literally, if the 2012 conspiracy were more than a silly fancy, and the world really were to come apart—a year early—in the coming week, and John Cusack’s Cessna was the only safe harbour left in the world, we would bring the party to the plane and rock these games across the planet Earth.
A splendourous and sibilant celebration of indie games and the arcade spirit!
We’re renting out an art gallery, hooking up the projectors, and basking in the glory of some of the most beautiful arcade-inspired indie games out there. Did we mention beer? The question is rhetorical; we didn’t! But the bar will indeed be available — and with a cold beverage in hand and the music moving our feet, we will play amazing games on amazing screens with amazing friends. (We have anecdotal evidence from last year’s event that this party will remain statistically amazing, within one standard deviation of happiness, 19 times out of 20.)
WHEN AND WHERE DO WE HAVE THE JOY?
November 2nd, 20h00 — November 3rd, 01h00 Eastern Bloc
7240 Clark (near De Castelnau metro, Blue line).
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Tickets to the Prince of Arcade: $9 at the door $7 for those holding MIGS passes.
WE HEARD YOU LIKE VIDEO GAMES
Let the record show that we have some wicked-fantastic games to play. In no particular alphabetical order, let us hold hands and love.
